2023 June 28th, Day 76 Portland back to the Hamble & the stats.

Leaving at 04:40 I had the engine off as I left the harbour for a good sail towards St Albans under the Cruising Chute in a reasonable WSW wind of around 11 knots, it dropped for a while so the engine went on for a couple of hours to get past St Albans to Anvil Point, the wind then came back and I sailed on to North Head where the tide changes favourable a little earlier than in the Needles Channel, as it happened I could have used either as I was a bit slower than hoped for - another boat went the other route and we took about the same time.

Powering along the North Channel towards Hurst. I had taken the main down before reaching N. Head buoy in case the wind increased (it did) and to avoid gybing it around Hurst Point, the next video will show why. As the wind increased I was motor sailing for safety with a reefed jib and going very quickly with the tide under me.

Rounding Hurst Point (it comes into focus after a few seconds).

As soon as I was clear of Hurst Narrows the wind dropped and I shook out the reef and turned off the engine for a pleasant run up the Solent in lovely weather only to be hit by a F6 wind off Calshot, I certainly couldn't get onto the mooring in that but it moderated as I passed Hamble Point Buoy.

I had to slow down for the Yarmouth to Lymington Ferry.

There is not a lot of room between the "protected" shipping lane
in the Thorn Channel and shallow water.

For the third time if four trips I arrived back to find someone was on my mooring! That boat's mooring was occupied by another so it looks as if it was a chain reaction. I managed to get onto a spare mooring but it was tight and difficult. I would have had significant problems getting out again single handed in anything other than still conditions and no tide so I called the manager and left it for him to sort out. 

It was particularly annoying as I had given warning I was coming back and asked that the mooring was checked - people have a habit of driving over these trot moorings and chewing them up if they are left empty for any period of time. The manager / owner who was overseas had been told the mooring was clear but they checked the wrong one, as a result they had to move at least three boats rather than one or two.

55 miles in twelve and a quarter hours.

Apart from getting rained on whilst escaping the boat, the trip home on Thursday the 29th was very lucky. The bus to Southampton was a little late due to road works but I made the train to Oxford with 3 minutes to spare without rushing on the walk to the station, that train was a little early into Oxford so I was able to walk straight onto a train to Bicester rather than, as has happened on every previous occasion, watching it disappear into the distance and waiting 30 or 40 minutes for the next. If the mainline train had not been as crowded (people standing much of the way) it would even have been quite a pleasant journey. 

The first trip to unload and clean up was delayed until the following week as it would be manic over the weekend due to the Round the Island race.

Some stats for this trip: 

• 76 Days.
• 421 hours at sea.
• 1,885 nautical miles (2,173 Statute Miles) over the ground. 
• 54 stops (some at the same place outbound and inbound).
• 22 places visited for the first time
• 11 days weather bound (much better than the last few years).
• 41 nights at anchor.

Summary 2017 - July 2023:

Includes some estimates of day sailing in 2017 & 2018 but the total GPS miles is the same as that recorded by the instruments. Excludes days on board when at the "home" marina or mooring.

Year	Days	Hrs at Sea	GPS N Miles	GPS S Miles	Days Sailing	Places Visited
2017	14	?	238	274	13	1
2018	46	?	1,559	1794	31	22
2019	49	485	2,282	2,626	41	26
2020	64	372	1,685	1,939	33	27
2021	115	652	2,744	3,158	70	66
2022	133	596	2,785	3,205	68	64
2023	79	421	1,888	2,173	52	54
Total	500	2,526	13,181	15,169	308	260

Wildlife

Initially I saw very little but things changed big time once I was west of Mull and there was plenty to see most of the the way home:

Whales:

Multiple sightings of Minke whales in:

The Sea of the Hebrides. 
The Sound of Harris.
The Little Minch.

 

one in The Firth of Lorn and two north of Islay.

Minke whale in the Cope Passage Sound of Harris

Orca pod in the Sea of the Hebrides.

Beluga off Newlyn 

Dolphins, a huge pod off Hawes bank in The Sea of The Hebrides, 2 large groups in the Celtic sea and good numbers elsewhere until east of Portland. 

Harbour Porpoise, at least a couple of sightings, one off SW Wales and one in the Firth of Lorn.

Seals, Common and Grey: The Sound of Mull, Loch Aline, around St Kilda, Vatersay Sound, Skye and a few elsewhere.

Sea Otters: Not as many as some years but 2 or 3 including one in the Sound of Harris.

Basking Shark: Off Vatersay and South Uist.

Rescues

I always hear a lot of calls for help being answered, this year things were fairly quite until I was on my way back then there seemed to be at least one every day, the Irish boats seemed particularly busy, including a couple of boat fires - always a potential disaster. 

On occasion I saw at least some of the action, including:

• The Skerries IRB on a shout to a vehicle off a harbour wall.
• The Dublin IRB iirc to a paddle boarder.
• The Angle relief AWB to a disabled yacht.
• The Angle relief AWB to the PS Waverly for a med-evac.
• The Penlee AWB to a diver with the bends.
• The Lizard AWB saving a fisherman from the water assisted by the Angle AWB.

2023 March 18th - Scrub and Anti-foul.

A quite evening on Friday lit by my posh new oil
lamp that replaced a now rather battered hurricane
lamp, my only non-essential purchase for the
boat in at least 12 months, certainly a record 😇.
It is fully gimbled and the base rotates 90 degrees
 to hang on a bulkhead or my mast support..

On Thursday, Saturday suddenly looked good for a scrub with light winds  and, unusually one day after neaps, there was likely to be enough water to get in and with the evening tide being higher there was no danger of being "Neaped". The maintenance dock was available and it was too good to miss so I quickly booked. 

First high water was at a sociable 07:43 and there would be sufficient water to get out of the dock from 19:30 - 20:00 which would allow me to get onto the mooring with the last of the flood tide. All good except it would be dark with no moon for my return.

Saturday broke with intermittent light rain and little wind so I was expecting a straight forward albeit damp departure from the trot mooring but it was not to be, the pick up line swept under the boat and caught the keel, the first time it has done that, so I had to get back on the mooring, disconnect one end of the line to clear it, now under time pressure to get off the mooring before the stand / second high which would be a bit lower and fearing a repeat I left it like that and later went back in the dinghy to reconnect everything.

With little wind and on the last of the first flood getting onto the piles was relatively straightforward although there was a narrow gap and a tricky left / right turn between the pile and one of the clubs launches, unfortunately the part time bosun's were not starting work until 09:00 or they could have moved one or more.

On the piles, in a little under 2m of water now a long wait for the
stand to end and the tide to drop 1.5 metres before I could start
work in knee deep water, wearing waders.

The A9m officially draws 1.67m / 5ft 6"  but with a bigger engine lots of batteries and fuel Sancerre has put on some weight so 1.7 - 1.72m is probably nearer the mark. The tidal gauge shows the depth about half way in to the dock.

Sancerre about to settle in 1.8m of water, the spinnaker
halyard is out to the right and tensioned to ensure the
boat leans against the piles. Helpfully the auto pilot
control unit measures heel and the plotter can display
it (not a given, the other NMEA 2000  instruments can't)
so I cranked on 2.5 degrees and maintained that as
she dropped.

Touching forward - the dock floor slopes down to the river. 

1.6m of water and the aft lashing to the pile had to be eased so that
the stern could drop.

I had just finished power washing when the light rain turned heavy, just when I needed the boat dry, so I retired to the bar for a quick pint as the squall past. Power washing is harder work than you might think, the industrial unit is powerful enough that you have to brace yourself or get knocked over so the rest was welcome. No pics at this stage because of the rain and I was busy.

Job done, two coats of white antifoul to the boot line which was
raised last year in something of a rush so it was rather thin on
the part of the boat that gets the most growth. Some of the
blue was touched up, leading edges get the most wear and
knocks and was a bit thin in places.

Surprisingly the shaft anodes, one over a year old and one 8 months were almost as good as new so were not replaced, the year old small anode on the P bracket was badly eroded so was.

Getting out of the dock is tricky with prop walk more a hinderance than a help until past the end of the pontoon and the three launches moored to it. To help I put a long line to the stern of the middle launch and used that to haul her back and then into the launches as the tide took Sancerre away from them. With almost no wind I was then able to motor out slowly backwards then turn with he prop walk before heading back to the mooring.

The line going to the second launch in the pic and was a big help,
if there had been more wind I would probably have run my long
(100m) line over to the finger in the next door marina and turned the
boat there before going out into a stronger wind and tide. 

A berth at that marina would be about six times what I pay for a
mooring 2 cables down stream and that is not cheap.

Pulling three and a half tonnes of boat fore and aft single handed in still water is not a problem but pulling one sideways or with a tide running is; so on top of the other work it is going to take me a day or two to recover 😞. 

Plans

The tide is good to leave for points west on or about the 29th but the weather does not look promising [Edit: and a few days later looked even worse], not being as fit as I would like I would prefer not to start the cruise by taking on a 30 - 36 hour direct trip to Start Point or Plymouth so to get a good tide through the Portland Bill inshore route, I will not get away until Wednesday April 12th at the earliest, disappointing but hopefully it will be a bit warmer and I will have a few days chasing trout 😀 after the season opens on the chalk streams in early April.

I'm now on Plan C, see the next post.

2023 March 3rd - Preparing for the scrub and a shout out to "Total Tide"

The RAFYC maintenance dock is a very economic alternative to a lift out for a pre-season scrub and touch up of the anti-fouling, Sancerre had 3 coats a year ago and another in July so should be OK for this season but the boot line was changed in July so an extra coat on that seems sensible and perhaps another coat of blue if it looks thin and time permits. 

The dock is equipped with an industrial standard power washer so once the tide has dropped the clean does not take long, but you do have to be careful not to take off the anti-foul by getting too close.

The RAFYC maintenance docks (© RAFYC). Getting in is
reasonably straightforward, getting out trickier as there is
little room between the RAFYC launches on the pontoon and
boats in the marina and Sancerre does not steer that well going
slow astern, but there is good protection from the tide much of
the way so I can warp her through the narrow part if necessary.

An early start is required to enable me to be in and out in one tide, to use the full 24 hours I would need to be there as she lifted on the second tide and settled on the following ebb - and I could not reasonably stay on board. 

The dock sill is at 2m above datum and Sancerre draws 1.7 metres so I need close to 4 metres to get in and out safely allowing for a lower than predicted tide if there is particularly high atmospheric pressure and / or a NE wind. That is not available at neaps so I went for the 13th March, four days before the neap tide, far enough away to avoid being "neaped" (Having sufficient water on one tide but insufficient on the next to get out or off) but close enough that I would have enough daylight for the scrub, replacing the anodes and any touch up work.

The days tide as shown by Admiralty "Total Tide", many
apps do not show the curve for the Hamble accurately, particularly
the 2nd high, often shown as a simple "stand" or not at all and
the "Young Flood Stand" starting c 2.5 hours after low water.

I need dead slack water or an incoming tide to get on and off the mooring so going into the dock at 04:30 gives a few hours sleep and, even allowing for any depressed height, sufficient water to get in on the second high and plenty of water on the first high at at 14:00 to get out of the dock.

Admiralty "Total Tide" vs the rest.

It's interesting to compare this prediction from Imray's Tides App (and
 most other apps) with the "Gold Standard" the Admiralty's "Total
Tide" shown above it, the later is expensive but far more detailed in
complex situations you find around the Solent, Poole etc.

Total Tide will do a lot more and to a very fine resolution, of
course wind and atmospheric pressure will impact the above
but its a very good starting point. Unfortunately it only runs
on a PC.

And tidal streams as well - more than shown on the charts, here
the Portland inshore route is just opening on March 17th although
 at the time of writing it looks like the weather will not be good
enough to leave that week.

Update March 7th: With a couple of exceptions the weather models have started to come together and there is a good chance of 20 - 40 knots of wind along the south coast early next week, too much to safely get off of the piles and onto the mooring single handed and I have no desire to beat against a strong south westerly to go sailing so I have booked the piles for another day on Monday the 27th and if the weather is reasonable I'll be looking to leave on the following Wednesday to go round the Portland inshore route on Friday 31st.

If I am able to get on and off the piles next week I will do so and perhaps come out a second time on the 27th to put a full coat of anti-foul on.

Click here for "The Scrub".

Spot Sancerre

Spot Sancerre! pic by Discover Hamble reposted by Hamble Lifeboat.

The full 360 can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/DiscoverHamble/photos/a.522877354869330/792436834580046/?type=3&theater

And a special Easter edition from a different view point can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/HambleLifeboat/photos/a.427441263944316/3081767461845003/?type=3&theater